The Life of a Cab Driver
by AWanderingMuse
Summary: As a cab driver, you hear the strangest things.


**Disclaimer**: I do not own Percy Jackson and the Olympians or Heroes of Olympus. All familiar characters, world features and plot devices belong to Rick Riordan. This story is not for profit, it is for fun.

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It was late afternoon in late May. The air was warm and the sun bright, its rays cutting between the buildings of Manhattan. The cabbie idled in his van by the curb. He was waiting for a customer, any customer. He was considering moving to a different post when a group of four kids ran up to the cab. They were shouting about something. A dark haired boy with green eyes glanced over his shoulders holding some sort of stick.

"Annabeth, Cab!" he shouted to a blond haired girl.

For a second the cabbie considered driving off, the kid was wielding a stick for heaven sakes. Wielding it, not just holding it or even swinging it around. He was wielding it, like it was a familiar weapon. That was enough of a reason for the cabbie to drive off, except for one thing. The kids looked like they were being threatened. They weren't afraid, but something seemed to be very wrong.

The girl came over to him. "Can you take us to Long Island, quickly? We can pay for it."

"Where in Long Island do you want to go?"

"I'll have to direct you." She replied distractedly, as if already planning what she would do if he said no.

"I need more than that." The cabbie said just as one of the other kids, a girl, flew from the alley into a wall. She sat there dazed. The guy gave a victorious yell from the shadows. Did the boy just throw her?

A boy, younger than the rest ran out of the darkness, "Are we getting in the cab, or not? Cause we have to get out of here. Percy got _it_, but there's sure to be more if we don't leave. Now."

The other guy, Percy, the cabbie guessed, came out of the alley as well. Together the two boys helped the other girl up. He noticed they all had dark hair. All of them, except the blonde girl, who was now giving him a look that was somehow sad, demanding, and angry all at once. "Please, it's important and we can pay."

Feeling bad for the kids and in desperate need of customers the cabbie finally assented. The kids pilled in the back of the van and the Cabbie noticed something else eerily similar about them. They all had unusual eye colors. The blonde's eyes were grey, the oldest boys sea-green, the other girl had clear-as- a-cloudless-sky blue eyes, and the youngest had dark brown eyes that were nearly black.

The kids started looking out the rear window nervously, "Sir?" The girl who had flagged him down asked pointedly. The driver, realizing he wasn't driving, shifted the cab into drive and drove in the direction of Long Island.

Soon the kids were talking amongst themselves. He knew he shouldn't, but the cabbie couldn't help but to listen in.

"Four, Percy!" The girl with spikey hair said agitatedly. "Four Hounds. How is that 'not a big deal'?"

"It's not." The young kid with dark eyes said.

"Shut it, Death Breath." The arguing pair yelled at the poor kid.

"I'm just saying." He whined.

At this point the girl who had flagged him down, Annabeth, was glaring daggers at the three.

"Just because they're all over the Un-" Percy began to say but was cut off by the two girls yelling, 'Seaweed Brain' and 'Kelp Head'. _What was with these nick-names? _"fashionable parts of town." He finished with a squeak.

Curious as to what was going on with his four passengers at this point the cabbie glanced at them in the rear view mirror to meet startling grey eyes staring intently at him through the mirror. "You'll need to get on the freeway up here." Annabeth said, while the spikey haired girl glared at him suspiciously. Percy was still staring at his shoes abashedly, something the Cabbie was oddly thankful for. Out of all of them, that kid unnerved the cabbie the most. The youngest was lounging indifferently in the back seat, like none of this really affected him at all.

"I still think we should report it." The spikey haired girl said. "It's unusual."

"I agree with Thalia." Annabeth said decisively.

"Who are we going to report it too?" The youngest asked bored.

"I don't know Nico, maybe, Chiron?" Annabeth told him. The cabbie took a moment to wonder where he'd heard that name from.

From the mirror the cabbie could see the youngest, Nico, roll his eyes. "Geez, Annabeth, I'd never have thought of that. I was just wondering if we should tell anyone else."

"Chiron, will tell Mr. D, I'm sure." Annabeth said, just as Thaila promised to tell her mentor. The cabbie thought he detected a significant emphasis on the word mentor. He wondered who her mentor was, probably someone famous.

"I'll tell Dad, I guess." Nico, said grudgingly, "Just to make sure there's not a reason _they're_ running around New York."

"We'll have to work on our defenses, in case they decide to come to camp." Percy said earning a shocked look from the girls.

Nico sniggered. While Annabeth declared him correct. "I can't believe Kelp Head just said something smart." Thalia commented.

This started another round of arguing between Thalia and Percy as the cabbie drove down an old farm road on Long Island.

"You can't just say things like that!" Percy yelled.

"Sure I can, Kelp Head!" Thalia responded, making the boy angrier.

"Guy's, why don't you just calm down." Nico said putting a hand between them. Apparently this was a mistake because he yelped and then yelled, "Hey! That hurt, Pinecone Face!"

"Then stay out of it next time Death Breath." The two yelled back at him, then at each other. "I'm talking now!"

"Do you two even hear yourselves?" Death Breath, Nico, asked loudly. The cabbie really wanted to understand these nicknames. They made absolutely no sense.

Annabeth cleared her throat to get the cabbies attention, but she kept one wary eye on her arguing friends. "It just right up there she said pointing to the top of a hill. The Cabbie looked and saw that there seemed to be a flurry of activity at the hill top.

The arguing got louder as Annabeth swore, or at least the Cabbie thought it sounded like a swear, he couldn't understand what she said.

"Hey, World War Three!" She yelled at her friends as the cabbie pulled up on the hill where a bunch of kids seemed to be getting chased around by several dogs. A crazy old lady seemed to be goading them on. "We've got bigger trouble!"

That statement made the kids stop yelling at each other. So quickly that the cabbie had a hard time keeping up the kids handed him a bunch of money and piled out of the car rushing to help their friends. The Cabbie drove back to his curb, wondering all the while who the kids were and where exactly it was that they had taken him to.

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**Updates**: This is a one-shot, so no updates.

**Reviews**: Constructive criticism is awesome. Flames are for reading by.


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